Wind damage to your plants..

Anybody else been out in their gardens battening down the hatches today. I've taken down my hanging baskets, had to do a bit of tying up on the sweet peas and the grannies bonnets were taking a pounding.

I'm worried about my foxgloves - they and the white cyclamen hedera were the only plants here apart from rampant ivy when we moved here last summer - we rescued them when we and the builders dug out the hugely overgrown ivy hedges surrounding the garden and they got transplanted into the new 'Shady Bank' - they're just about to bloom - but will they still be there tomorrow morning?

And my poor little squashes, toms and sweetcorn just want a little warmth I've put them back in the cold frame with the lid ajar to ride this weather out - but I don't like to see them all huddled up together at this stage - they need a bit more free-flowing air about them

Just about everything battered and sad - the baskets will come down today till this goes over - if it ever does. Some thing still standing, alliums looking stunningly good, foxgloves also, geum good - columbines lying around as are the 'tame' umbillifers. Some clematis justl lying in a heap, others not too bad. Grass long and sodden, likely to get alot longer before it an be cut. Very tall fountain grass looking lovely but virtually blocking the path with wet flower heads, in fact the path looks more like an assault course with flattening plants. Part of my tall buddlea has broken off, probably wind but may be pigeons which never seem to know what branches will bear their weight - stupid horrible things.

My David Austin roses suffered badly in the high wind yesterday. They were heavily in bud and many branches just keeled over. The stems seems much softer than my hybrid tea roses, which fared quite well. What a shame! How come Monty's garden looked so perfect yesterday evening -suspect the programme was pre-recorded!

I was out at 9.30 pm pm Thursday shoving extra stakes in around my broad beans, I could hardly sleep for worrying about them, but they seem to have survived OK. A few foxgloves and lupins have collapsed, and some asparagus, and the poppies are all smashed up, By this evening (Sat) the wind has dropped and the garden seems to be quietly recovering from the shock.

I did find some discoloured leaves on my outdoor tomatoes - could this be the cold winds? or could it be the beginnings of blight? I'd have thought it was too cold for blight yet.

And yes, I wondered what planet Monty was on last night. He referred back to the Jubilee pageant as if it had already taken place, but it has hardly stopped raining and blowing since then and he didn't seem to have noticed this.

My lupins have been magnificent this year. But one (why only one? especially since it's between others???) collapsed, so I did get out there and stake it. Looks better today, although it would have been better if I'd been a bit more pro-active.

My tomatoes outdoors also have some whitening at the edges of the lower leaves, and Green Magpie, I suspect, too, that it's a sign of the unseasonal cold weather recently. Otherwise, they seem pretty happy, and I expect they'll perk up with a bit of warmth. (fingers crossed that we have a bit more "summer" to come)